Cape Town - The City of Cape Town has been granted a final interdict against those who interfere with servicing of toilets, mayor Patricia de Lille said on Wednesday.
The Western Cape High Court made the interim interdict final on Tuesday.
She said the order would ensure that affected communities, especially Kosovo, Kanana, and Barcelona, were given essential services without the obstruction of a few individuals.
The city approached the court last month after groups of people disrupted the servicing of container and portable flush toilets (PFTs). At the time, former Sannicare janitors responsible for cleaning communal toilets blocked part of the N2 highway with burning tyres and dumped faeces on the road.
They were protesting against being dismissed after demanding that they be paid the equivalent of a 16-hour work day. Sannicare rejected the demand and said it was against labour legislation.
Some residents of Barcelona and Kanana apparently removed some of the container toilets from the neighbouring informal settlement, Europe, to close down the highway.
An interim interdict was obtained against 89 former Sannicare employees and seven residents of Ward 40, associated with the ANC Youth League (ANCYL).
The interim order prohibited the named individuals from interfering with service delivery, city staff, and property.
It also prevented them from blocking any roads into and surrounding the N2, Borchards Quarry, NY108, the R300, Klipfontein Road, Stock Road, Symphony Way, Sheffield Road, and Vanguard Drive.
A second protest took place in the vicinity about a week after the interdict was granted.
In protests against rolling out the PFTs human waste was thrown on the steps of the Western Cape legislature and at provincial premier Helen Zille's convoy.
De Lille called on those involved not to do anything illegal. She appealed to the ANCYL to prevent its members from doing so.
Last week, ANCYL national task team co-ordinator Magasela Mzobe took a tour of the toilets in the Barcelona and Kanana informal settlements. He explained the political stance on the issue.
“Throughout this saga, the name of the ANCYL has been mentioned and we felt as a task team we must come and summarise the problems of our people and give the necessary support that they need,” he said at the time.
He said the ANCYL distanced itself from faeces throwing, but not from raising poor service delivery.
“We are talking to them that there is a better way that we can employ in raising the plight of our people without having to throw faeces all over the province,” he said.
“If they do not listen to that, we are forced then to look at the internal processes of disciplinary action.”
- Sapa
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